- What we teach and how we teach
- PK-8th grade over a quarter million devoted to students
- Small class sizes, 2 teachers in a class of 20. Started at 85 students
- Incredible amount of individual support
- Transportation is 7% of the budget.
- Breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day
- Wraparound services
- On-site partnership with Dayton’s Children's Hospital - full-time mental health, doctor, and other services for kids.
- Startup year - be naive about what starting a school entails.
- Temporary site - Fire marshall
- Working with a local Medicaid provider
- 30% higher in every category than every other child on Medicaid
- Looking at lots of data for whole-child outcomes
- 51% at grade level at the start, and 85% at grade level at the end of the year.
- Not all roses and sunshine
- Screenings for character, mental health, etc.
- Age 27 goals.
- How they teach - Tried finding instructional strategies that really moved the needle.
- Influenced by Hattie’s work - prioritized by effect size.
- Teacher quality matters
- Benjamin Bloom’s Research - Acton Academy
- Using personalized tools in a smart way.
- Zearn math program - typically used as supplemental
- Thrown the idea out the window
- Mixed-age classrooms.
- Start teaching at the instructional level, not the age or grade level.
- Personality and character benefits
- Looking at Age 27, and how that reflects in 1 year.
- Hire in the top 10% of teachers.
About AJ Stich
Adam J. Stich (A.J.) is the founding principal of The Greater Dayton School. Prior to starting in this role, he spent nearly seven years as a principal in Chicago Public Schools, where he drove strong outcomes for students and teachers. You can hear his first interview on Transformative Principal at this link.
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